Ever since the release of their 76-minute sophomore album, Blueberry Boat (Rough Trade), Brooklyn’s Fiery Furnaces — the brother-and-sister duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger — have been lauded as one of indie rock’s more ambitious, idiosyncratic bands. On that disc, they moved on from the guitar/drums immediacy of garage rock to a more textured approach that deployed dozens of instruments (keyboards, drum machines, and a whole bucket of samples and loops) and topped it off with references as disparate as pirates, Damascus, and the White Sox. Then in 2005, they got their grandmother involved by soundtracking her storytelling on Rehearsing My Choir (Rough Trade). Both releases contributed to their reputation as a band with an overflow of ideas. On Widow City, however, the duo’s intellectual expansiveness leads into shallow waters. They’ve developed an annoying penchant for alliteration: lyrics like “Mopes in the moonlight on the mesa in March,” references to “the petrol pump” and a “crazy quilts and collectibles collection,” song titles like “Wicker Whatnots” abound. And it’s not clear what any of it means. Loquacity is no crime, but Fiery Furnaces are trying too hard to be clever. Not much is going on in the music, either, as they switch clumsily back and forth between raucous guitars and tinkling pianos. There’s plenty in the way of ambition on Widow City, but little substance to back it up.

Stop making sense "Look, we just think that we, as a band, are very . . . interested. In things, in the world."

The Fiery Furnaces Last fall, Matt Friedberger told me that he and his sister Eleanor had been working on some snappy girl-group love songs for their next album.

Deadboy and the Elephantmen If a co-ed blues-punk duo make a sound and no one hears it, will they still elicit comparisons with the White Stripes and the Fiery Furnaces? Yes. Deadboy and the Elephantmen, "Stop, I'm Already Dead" (mp3) Deadboy and the Elephantmen, "Evil Friend" (mp3)

Rehearsing their choir Epically twee, and then simply epic, "Comet Flies Over the Underbelly" — the fourth track on Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Samples for Handsome Animals — is, for a minute or two, almost unbearable.

Sunderland smoothies "We're two brothers trying to entertain ourselves and have a laugh in the studio," says Peter Bowens. "We have to pretend to be rock musicians."

Live: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper The first hints of bouncy reverb can be heard from the Stadium on Free Street, and the echo chamber carries all the way to this monthly concert's home at the top of a building at the corner of Congress and High streets.

PLUCK AND DETERMINATION | March 09, 2010 People have always thought that Joanna Newsom was indulgent. At first, it was about her voice — the kind of nasal yelp that usually keeps a performer from getting on stage at all. Then, on her second album, it was about her vocabulary and her instrumentation.

SONG OF HERSELF | August 05, 2009 "Listen, I will go on record saying I love Feist, I love Neko Case. I love that music. But that shit's easy listening for the twentysomethings. It fucking is. It's not hard to listen to any of that stuff."

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT | BLAQKOUT | June 15, 2009 LA hip-hop has two threads, and DJ Quik pulls both of them. The first is g-funk, a production style that relies on deep, open grooves and an endless parade of funk samples.

FLIPPER | LOVE | May 26, 2009 Flipper formed in San Francisco in 1979, and they're remembered three decades later because of a song called "Sex Bomb" that's one of the funniest pieces of music I've ever heard.

ST. VINCENT'S ACTOR GETS A RUN-THROUGH | May 26, 2009 There were not one but two clarinets on stage at the Somerville Theatre on Tuesday night, and that gives you some idea of how intricate Annie Clark's chamber-pop compositions can be.